We're at a 15 year replacement heavier rig (engines, etc.), with five additional years for the rig to be a reserve.

Our lighter stuff is supposed to be around 10 years, but we have a couple hanging around that have made it longer. Buggies and lighter F-550 based squads will also be allowed to hang around as reserve or second-out status for an additional 5 years.

Miles aren't an issue, we don't put enough on them to be concerned with that aspect of the equation.

Our last engine replacment was a 30 - year old Mack Cf 600 pumper, we will be keeping pumpers & aerials in service for 25 years with only 35,000 - 38,000 miles on them !... We are a VOL department with a avg of 400 calls per year covering 3 sq miles !...

Work:
Engines & Ladders in front line service for 10 years, then move to reserve status for about 5 years. Some engines have over 100,000 miles on them when they move to reserve status. Ladders have less.

Volly house:
Engines & Tankers replaced approximately every 18 years, engines have somewhere around 50,000 miles on then when they move to reserve status. We're currently investigating changing the replacement time to 12-15 years.

Replacement schedule

We provide our city council and manager with a 25 year plan for apparatus replacement. This is reviewed at the annual meeting with city officials, and gets a major overhaul every 5 years with annual tweeking and updating before this meeting. The report projects estimated annual operating costs so that future budgets may be anticipated. This years purchase of a new aerial (actual cost $ 875,000) was projected on the report in 1985 at $ 800,000. Not a bad projection for 22 years ago.

Our policy has been to rebuild all engines & rescue equipment at 15 to 20 years and the replacement comes after 25 to 30 years. Aerial devices are rebuilt at the manufacturer and upgraded to current standards, with chassis replacement as needed. Example: we recently replaced a 1967 Snorkel (75') with a 100' KME AerialCat tower. The Snorkel was completely revamped and upgraded to 1000 lb capacity and aluminum basket in 1992, then in 1997 was transferred to a new Mack chassis with new compartmentization. Service of 40 years with some very good service and minimal maintenance problems.

We operate in both an urban and rural setting covering 102 sq mi and heavy industry to lite manufacturing, big box stores and residential. We also operate over some difficult rural roads with grades exceeding 12% and a large amount of forested area.

Replacement schedules are only one component of fleet maintenance. The weekly, monthly and annual servicing / testing are probably more critical in terms of useful life and reliability than the projected and actual replacement.

The 25 year operating plan also projects anticipated type and frequency of calls so that the purchased apparatus can be designed to meet the work load at the midrange of life at 15 years rather than to meet the current work load.

Good luck with your city fathers and your replacement schedule. It takes quite a bit of legwork and honest discussion to bring some politically oriented individuals around to long range planning rather than short range grand standing.

Replacement....uhhh, when it dies it gets replaced. I'm eligible to retire in 17 years and at the rate the town I'm in is going, the 11 yr old Ferrara/Spartan I work on will outlast me. Oldest front line Engine....1986. Oldest front line aerial....1993. Average age of fleet almost 14 years. Only one new vehicle since the mutt of a mayor took over 7 years ago.

We're wearing diamond plate out under the drivers left foot on many of these pieces.

What is your departments replacement policy on apparatus?
- Has been when truck is dead and not fixable (economically may be a factor) + time required to figure out where to obtain $ for a replacement used truck.

How many years do you keep your pumpers? 20yr + 15yr old when we purchase used.

How many miles do you keep them? Until dead. Purchase with 15000mi and in 20yr perhaps add15000mi.

It depends on mileage not years. The Shops determine when to rotate rigs to a slower company, back-up status or replace them. My engine company's current rig is 3 years old and already has 115K on it. It really depends on what and how much you're using a rig. Our engine companies run from 2000 up to 5000 runs and everywhere in between each year. Ladders make 1000 to 2000 runs per year so they have considerably less mileage, but they do tend to travel more miles per run (cover larger area per rig than an engine). So replacing on mileage makes more sense for us since rigs last for varying amounts of years depending where they are assigned to.

We replace rigs when they die and cant be fixed anymore.A few years ago we replaced a '72 Ward Lafrance with a new Freightliner/ALF but only because grant money bought it,it was our first new truck in 25 years of existence.We just bought an '87 model Pierce pumper to repalce another '70s Ward,and picked up an '84Pierce last year due to needing a pumper.our ladder is a '71 Maxim and well probably have it at least 6-8 more years.The 2 Pierce's will probably see 10 more years of service.The new truck will get run in the ground before it goes anywhere(probably 25 years at least).We buy used because that is all we can afford and run till they cant be fixed economically anymore.Oh yeah volly dept running between 350-400 calls a year.

Apparatus Replacement Cycle

In our very geographicly large county wide fire service we run paramedic engine companies that in the busier stations see 25,000 miles per year. So mileage is a large determining factor. The rigs will be cycled to slower stations as mileage acumulates and typically put into reserve for 5 years after front line service of 7 - 10 years depending on mileage and bumps and scrapes.

Engines: Average is about 9-10 years front line with 5 reserve.
Ladders: Average is about 13-14 years front line with 5-7 reserve.

Busier companies get newer rigs more frequently based upon operating HOURS and NOT milage. We are on our 3rd new pumper since '94 and about to get another new one in a couple of months with our Ladder Co. being on their 3rd new rig since '97.

Volunteer Department:

Engines: Average 12 years front line with atleast 5 reserve. Reserve rigs are then traded in for replacement rigs as the current front line rigs rotate down.
Ladders: Atleast 15 years front line with another 7-8 reserve we are speculating as we haven't replaced one since getting our first in '00.